A different future
by purple sky always
Summary: AU. Fem Harry. Two years after the war, Jasmine Potter is an unspeakable for the department of mysteries. An attack in the time room causes all of her memories to be sent back twenty years to another Jasmine Potter, cousin of James Potter. With memories from another life to aid her, Jasmine sets out to rewrite history.
1. Prologue

Prologue

It was half pass ten when Jasmine Potter, girl who lived and savior of the wizarding world, finally put away her paperwork and locked up for the night. The department of mysteries was not deserted as most departments would be at such a time and Jasmine passed a few other unspeakables who were engrossed in their work on her way out of the office area.

She loved working in the DOM because no one there treated her differently. To them, she was just another unspeakable, a unique one perhaps, but still one of them nevertheless. She was one of the department's best agents because her name and face allowed her to be invited to gatherings and parties not usually open to the public. Everyone wanted to curry favour with Jasmine Potter and some of them would accidentally let slip bits of information in their excitement.

The general public was under the impression that Jasmine was studying for her Runes mastery and using her fame to campaign for certain bills in the wizengamot. She indeed was doing those things but when she was free, she would drop by the office to inform her superiors of her findings. Like two-thirds of the unspeakables, Jasmine was one of the department's under-cover agents. Hardly anyone knew she worked for the DOM, not even her closest friends.

Most people believed that the department of mysteries dealt with research of anything mysterious or obscure, but they did not realise that the department consisted of not only researchers, but spies and in a few instances, assassins as well.

Now that the second blood war was over, Jasmine was on a look out for any children of death eaters who might want revenge and cause trouble. She was quite confident that Draco Malfoy, although still a huge pain in the ass, was no longer a real threat. She supposed his family had learned their lesson after being tortured by Voldermort and were trying to lay low and keep out of the public's eye.

She was not so sure about a few other children of death eaters, though. Pansy Parkinson and the Carrow twins had dropped off the grid and Jasmine was worriedly keeping an ear out for any sign of them.

As she was passing by the time room where the research teams kept all of their time turners, she heard a muffled scream and some scuffling sounds behind the door and froze. With a twist of her wrist, her trusty Holly and phoenix feather wand fell into her hand. She shot out a silent patronus requesting for back up and in a matter of seconds, a few of the unspeakables she passed previously came running around the corner.

She motioned for Katie Bell, Elliot Gibson and Gabriel kirkman to get into position behind her and then shot a blasting hex at the door. The three people wearing death eater masks were so startled that it gave Jasmine time to shoot off a stunning curse at the middle death eater before he could move.

Seeing that their friend was unconscious, the other two death eaters jumped into motion, recklessly casting the unforgivables, bone-breakers and blasting hexes. Jasmine became worried when she saw a killing curse narrowly Miss Katie bell who had just dragged the unconscious body of Gloria spencer, head researcher of the time division, with her as she took cover behind one of the desks. She needed to end this quickly, before the situation got worse.

She and Elliot stood back to back and tried to corner the other two death eaters but there was very little room to maneuver and soon they were standing beside the cabinet housing the time turners.

One of the two remaining death eaters, clearly a woman by the way her death eater robes clung to her figure and the higher pitch of her voice used her friend as a human shield. That startled Jasmine so much that she paused for a moment to digest what she had just seen and in the split second of distraction, the last death eater shot a killing curse in her direction.

She ducked and the cabinet behind her shattered, causing the time turners to tumble out of their boxes and shatter at her feet. The time sand floated up and around her, and the last thing Jasmine Potter saw was Elliot's horrified face before she saw black.


	2. Chapter 1 - Voldemort, watch out I

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or plot of Harry Potter. It all belongs to J.

Chapter 1

-1979—

In another world, another time, Jasmine Potter was laying face-down on her luxurious king-size bed, crying into her pillow, mourning the deaths of her parents Andrew and Diane Potter.

Up till three days ago, Jasmine had led a charmed and priviledge life, being the pure blood daughter of Andrew Potter and Diane Bellamy, last daughter of the French Bellamy dynasty. She had just achieved her Runes mastery and was enjoying her achievement by partying and drinking with friends when tragedy struck.

She had heard about Lord Voldemort and his death eaters from her cousin James but never really considered them a viable threat as they were in entirely different countries. Intellectually, she understood that Lord Voldemort and his ilk would want her family dead for being so-called "blood traitors", but she never imagined they would send people to take down her parents to make a statement.

What a coup it must have been for the death eaters, being able to kill Andrew Potter [one of the legends from the grindlewald war] and his lovely French wife. She could only imagine what sort of statement the death eaters were going for. 'Look, we took down Andrew Potter, former head auror of the British ministry who led the English forces against Grindlewald's army in the great wizarding war. You stand no chance against us. ' She hated the fact that her parents' deaths were being use to spread fear on the continent and to recruit new death eaters for Voldemort's cause.

Jasmine was so confident nothing would happen to her family. The wards on Bellamy manor were old and well-maintained and she had even layered a few of her own creation on top of the existing wards. The manor was literally a fortress.

'Well, the death eaters clearly knew they would never get onto the grounds,' she thought bitterly. Instead of attacking the manor, the dozen death eaters had patiently waited for her parents to leave for Christmas shopping at Sauveterre alley, Paris' magical shopping district, before making their move.

According to the auror reports, her parents were ambushed entering the alley. Her mother was killed instantly but her father somehow managed to dodge the killing curse coming at him. He was eventually taken down by a blasting hex to the chest, but not before he dispatched six of the twelve death eaters Voldemort sent.

The attack in the alley was front page news. The auror core was furious that the death eaters had dared laid hands on one of their best, and were working fervently to rally the citizens against the death eater threat, but the people were cowering in fear and there was very little success on that front.

Jasmine really didn't know what to do. She was now an orphan at 18 and she had no direction in life. Just as she was thinking that, she felt pain, pain, pain. It was as if a 500 pounds Hippogriff had sat itself on her head.

From behind her closed eyelids, she saw images flashing pass at incredible speeds. She saw the life of another jasmine potter. The dark cupboard in her aunt and uncle's home…finding out about magic and her dead parents…making friends with Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger…saving the philosopher's stone…the basilisk…the dementors of Azkaban…Voldemort's resurrection ritual…the terror of the second blood war…the seven horcruxes…dying…becoming an unspeakable after the war…the attack in the time room...

The moment she saw the last memory, Jasmine lost consciousness. Her mind was overwhelmed with the influx of new memories and shut down. When she woke up two hours later, the memories were still there, but her headache had lessened and she was able to bring up her occlumency shields to help her better compartmentalize the memories.

She spent hours sitting completely still in a meditative state, just absorbing everything. When she finally had a rough idea of the other Jasmine's life, she opened her eyes. Jasmine really had no idea what had just happened and she needed to test a few theories before she began to panic and suspect she was going mad.

She drew her eleven inch pine and unicorn hair wand, flicked it in a clockwise motion, spoke an incantation, and watched as a luminescent shield sprang to life. By this time, her brain was coming to a few very startling conclusions.

She had never heard of the Contego shield before but she had performed it flawlessly on her first try, drawing on the memories of the other Jasmine. That meant that the memories were genuine, that she had not simply cracked and imagined another life for herself.

The other Jasmine was born in 1980 and it stood to reason that some time magic was involved in the strange happenings of the last hours. This theory was further corroborated by the last memory that Jasmine had viewed - that of the fight in the time chamber.

She examined herself with a fine comb. Had the personality of the other Jasmine bled into her? No, it had not, Jasmine concluded. She loved James, but she still viewed him as her cousin and not her father despite the influx of new memories. Andrew and Diane potter were her parents and always would be. She thought of Ron and Hermione and all she felt was some minor curiosity. She never knew them and did not love them as deeply as the other Jasmine did.

She still loved the study of ancient languages and runes with a deep passion and although the other Jasmine hated attention, she didn't really mind it. As a child, her mother had taught her how to deal with her socialite status as the daughter of the last Bellamy. She knew how to dress, to dance, to engage in small talk and she didn't really mind it. In fact, she often enjoyed the many parties she was invited to unlike the other Jasmine who simply bore it for the sake of her unspeakable work.

Satisfied with her self-examination, Jasmine now turned her thoughts to what she should do. She could not let anyone know she had such sensitive and crucial information in her head. Lord Voldemort would certainly torture and kill her if he ever knew about it, and the ministry of magic would certainly throw her through the veil if they ever found out she had memories of the future. Meddling with time was strictly forbidden and anyone caught doing so would be put to death, no questions asked.

She wanted revenge for her parents, was determined to prevent her cousin and his family from dying, and refused to allow a second blood war now that she had the means to stop Voldemort in her head. It was all a matter of planning. At first Jasmine felt intimidated by the task she had set before herself. She would be taking down Voldemort alone and the prospect terrified her. Then she thought of her parents and straightened her spine.

She walked over to her heavy mahogany desk and took out a quill and some parchment to begin planning. First things first, she had to move to Britain. The fight against Voldemort was there and she had to be there to protect her remaining family.

With all her plans set, Jasmine decided to take a shower before anything else. The moment she saw her reflection in the mirror over the sink, she frowned. "You look a right mess," her mirror told her rather cheerily and Jasmine had to agree.

Her unruly black Potter hair was falling out of the pony tail she had tied it up in and the trade-mark emerald green eyes she had inherited from her mother's side of the family were red from all the crying she had done. She took a quick shower and went about fixing her appearance. Jasmine was certain her mother, the glorious French beauty, would have been appalled to see her in such a state.

With her Potter hair temporarily tamed by a tight French braid down her back, Jasmine finally felt like herself again. She still grieved for her parents but she had a purpose now. She was no longer simply drifting. She walked down the winding marble steps to the family room and set in motion her plan.

Above the fireplace was a large ornate mirror and Jasmine headed straight for it. The sight of the mirror made her smile; it was one of her master pieces and she was inordinately fond of it. If one looked close enough, they could pick up the miniscule runes that on first sight seemed a part of the mirror's design.

She tapped the surface with her wand and spoke in a clear voice, "Potter manor, England." Her eyes widened slightly at what she saw when the mirror cleared. Her cousin James was passionately kissing a pretty red head on the couch in front of the matching mirror on the other end.

Jasmine cleared her throat delicately to try and get James' attention but he must not have heard because he continued kissing the lady whom Jasmine supposed must be Lily, James' new wife. She tried again, this time, making sure to be louder.

It was as if the two of them had been caught doing something wrong; They sprang apart like opposite ends of a magnet and James tried patting down his windswept hair. Both of them looked around for the noise and James was the first to spot Jasmine peering at him through the mirror.

"Baby cousin! Did you call to speak to me? ". James grin was sheepish and Jasmine just smirked back at him.

"Of course." She turned to Lily then and dipped into an elegant curtsey. "And you must be Lily, my cousin's new wife. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Jasmine Potter, James cousin. I was sorry that I could not attend your wedding, but I had to sit for the first set of my mastery tests that day."

Lily smiled back at her in a friendly manner. "Jasmine Potter? I've heard quite a lot about you from James. The pleasure is all mine."

James grew serious then, and lost his smile. "Are you all right, Jas? I am really sorry about Uncle Andrew and Auntie Diane."

Jasmine forced herself not to cry. "I'm fine, James. As a matter of fact, that is why I'm calling. I have no one in France, and I would really like to come over to England. I'm going mad in the manor by myself. I need something to do. Please, can I come over? I want to help you in the fight against Voldemort. You know that I could be a great asset. I'm one of the youngest runes masters out there and I'm pretty good at warding." Jasmine used her eyes to plead with her cousin.

James ran a hand through his hair agitatedly. "It's dangerous over here, Jasmine. We are targets of Voldemort and there are raids on muggle London nearly every day."

"It's dangerous here, too!" she spoke up indignantly. "My parents were killed on Sauveterre alley by a dozen death eaters in case you've forgotten. Wherever I go, I will be in danger because I'm one of the 'blood traitor' Potters. "

James seemed to give up then and Lily grasped his hand tightly for comfort. "Fine, we will have a room ready for you when you arrive. Mum and Dad will be delighted to see you."

"Thank you, James," she said, with traces of anger still in her voice. "I'll need time to pack away all of the manor's valuables and send them to Gringotts. You can expect me in 3 days." Before cutting the connection, she softened her facial features and gave her cousin and his wife a soft smile, forgiving him for his thoughtless words.

After her talk with James, she got to work packing for the trip to England. Mipsy, her family's devoted house elf helped and the time passed quickly.

With all the preparations done, Jasmine shrank her trunk and put it into her pocket. She and Mipsy took the floo to the French ministry of magic and made their way briskly to the international portkey office.

"I need an international portkey to England, please," Jasmine spoke in French to the blonde sitting behind the counter. The lady gave her a skeptical look.

"Not really a good time for a visit right now," the woman mused but she nonetheless wrote down Jasmine's request in the ledger before her. "It will be ready in fifteen minutes. Anything else?"

Jasmine shook her head and took a seat in the waiting area. Exactly fifteen minutes later, the same lady approached her and handed over a tin can. "That will be 20 sickles, please." Jasmine handed over the money and the blonde checked her watch.

"Get ready. It is about to leave." Jasmine clasped Mipsy's hand and in a matter of seconds, they were pulled away by the portkey. When she landed on English soil, Jasmine handed the tin to the waiting attendant and made her way out of the British ministry of magic. As she walked out into muggle London, Jasmine smiled to herself. "Watch out, Lord Voldemort. I'm coming for you."

***A/N: Thank you so much for reviewing, favouriting and following my story. I feel very encouraged. Hopefully, you will enjoy this new chapter as much as the prologue.


	3. Chapter 2- Meeting the Order

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to J. .

Chapter 2-Meeting the Order

Even though Jasmine's parents had a London townhouse, she chose to move into Potter manor with her family. If she was alone, Jasmine was sure that all of her grief would catch up with her. Over the next two weeks, she checked and re-checked the wards on Potter manor and layered many of her own creations on top of the existing wards. She was terrified that the death eaters were coming to finish off the Potter family and would not rest until the manor was a fortress. When she was done, she was quite certain that not even the best team of Gringott's warders would be able to get pass.

During this time, Lily acted as her assistant and the two women got to know each other very well. They were as different as could be, but Jasmine found that she really liked her cousin's new wife. Lily took runes at Hogwarts and even if she was no expert warder, she understood the basics, enough to help Jasmine to speed up the process considerably.

While they worked, they talked about everything, from the types of fashions they enjoyed wearing [Jasmine loved elegant silk robes, no doubt because of her mother's influence, and Lily loved muggle jeans and T-shirts, probably because she was a muggleborn], the education they had had [was Beauxbatons superior to Hogwarts?], and of course, the war [both women were afraid for their family].

Just as the two of them were finishing up with the wards, professor Dumbledore called a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. The order was temporarily using the McKinnon's country home as their headquarters and Lily apparated Jasmine over as she had never been there before.

The two women met James outside the home and before the group walked in together, James introduced the men standing beside him to Jasmine as Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

As Jasmine shook their hands, she scrutinized them closely. Sirius had the classic aristocratic good looks of the Blacks and she could tell by the flirty smiles he was giving her that he was a consummate playboy. The Sirius standing in front of her could not be more unlike the Sirius of the unspeakable Jasmine's memories.

The Sirius in the memories was gaunt and unhealthy looking, with sunken eyes and a haunted look to him. The Sirius standing before her was brimming with youth and potential. His smile was charming and there was mischief in his eyes.

Remus Lupin was not the tired, weary, graying man in the memories who had everything taken from him. This Remus Lupin was happy and carefree. His smiles were sweet and his eyes were gentle and kind. Though there were a few strands of grey in his sandy brown hair, they made him look distinguished and studious, not old and broken like the Remus from the memories.

Jasmine did not know these two men but she would not wish the fates of their other counterparts on them regardless. She could tell they were good people who truly cared for James and for that, she liked them instantly.

"Our other friend, Peter Pettigrew, will be late so I will introduce you to him after the meeting," James said off-handedly. Jasmine immediately stiffened at the name. She did not know how she would react to meeting the traitor and only hoped her actions would not give her away.

As everyone gathered around the imposing oak table in the formal dining room, Jasmine looked about, trying to identify everyone from the memories. She did not recognize half of the people there and that really made her heart ache. If all went as before, half of these people around the table would not be alive in twenty years. 'I'm going to change that,' she tried to reassure herself, but she still felt a little disheartened.

All heads turned to Albus Dumbledore as he walked in. He was wearing bright purple robes with moving stars on them. The outfit was so outrageous that Jasmine nearly missed the rat-faced man slinking in behind Dumbledore.

Peter Pettigrew looked so very unassuming, with watery blue eyes and thinning hair. She would never have guessed he was the traitor if she didn't know better. Yet, she did, and Jasmine honestly did not know how to expose him without revealing a few of her own secrets. If she spoke to James of her suspicions, he would want to know why Jasmine suspected him and probably would not believe that one of his oldest friends would betray him anyway. She was still musing on what to do when the last stragglers took their seats and Dumbledore began the meeting.

Albus Dumbledore stood at the head of the table and the room quietened instantly. He was the leader of the light, defeater of Grindlewald, and when he spoke, everyone listened. Jasmine had briefly considered telling him about the horcruxes and pleading for his help, but she disregarded the idea when she thought back to how Dumbledore had not exactly made the best of decisions regarding her counterpart. He had told her of the prophecy far too late. The other jasmine had been lured to the department of mysteries and Sirius died there. No, Dumbledore could not be trusted with such sensitive information.

He might take it into his head to extract all of her memories and have her obliviated for 'The greater good'. Jasmine shuddered involuntarily. She did not want to become a vegetable, thank you very much. She knew that Albus Dumbledore was a good man, but this was her life and she could not bring herself to trust him on such an important matter.

"I am glad to see that so many of you could make it for the meeting," Dumbledore began. "Perhaps we shall start by introducing our newest member." He motioned to Jasmine and all eyes instantly turned to her.

"My dear, perhaps you would like to say a few words," Dumbledore suggested kindly. Was it her imagination or was he looking at her calculatingly, considering how to best use her in the fight against Voldemort? Jasmine gave herself a mental nudge and stood up to address the Order.

"Hello, my name is Jasmine Potter. James is my cousin." At this, Jasmine indicated James with a nod of the head. "I've lived my whole life in France. Graduated from Beauxbatons more than a year ago and I received my Runes mastery two months back. I'm pretty good with warding so if anyone wants help with that, don't hesitate to call me." Jasmine retook her seat to a multitude of speculative gazes.

For the rest of the meeting, the Order discussed the few attacks on muggle families that had been going on in the past month, the werewolves who had joined Voldemort's side led by Fenrir Greyback, and the giants that Voldemort was close to swaying to his side. "I have sent Hagrid to talk to the giants but I fear the best we can hope from them is neutrality." Dumbledore concluded wearily.

As the meeting concluded, the atmosphere around the table was somber. Jasmine got up and moved over to her cousin who was standing in a group with his friends. James saw her approaching and brightened up.

"Jasmine, I'd like you to meet Peter Pettigrew," he spoke up and Jasmine had to force herself to shake Peter's hand. She fixed a neutral expression on her face and no one realized anything was out of the ordinary. Thank goodness for her mother's pureblood training. Diane Potter drilled into her daughter's head the art of being polite even when you met someone you truly hated.

He had a weak grip, she noticed scornfully. Peter smiled at her weakly and she nodded back at him. Jasmine turned back to her cousin. "Introduce me to everyone else?" her eyes flicked around the room to indicate the rest of the Order.

"Of course." James held out his arm with a charming smile and Jasmine let him lead her around the room. She was introduced to the funny red head twins, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Benji Fenwick who worked for the obliviation squad, excitable Detellis Diggle, Hestia Jones, and many, many others.

When Jasmine met Allister Moody, she was taken aback. His right eye was replaced with a whirring, electric blue magical eye. Even the memories had not prepared her for meeting Mad-Eye moody. Jasmine wondered absurdly with a tiny giggle which she quickly stifled if his eye could see through clothing.

"Are you any good in a duel, girl?" The auror got straight to the point and Jasmine appreciated his bluntness.

"I was decent at defense while at Beauxbatons. I think I can hold my own against one or two death eaters." Jasmine thought about the hard-won fighting skills of her counterpart and frowned. She knew the spells her counterpart knew but she would never be as good as the other Jasmine. The unspeakable Jasmine had her instincts and reflexes honed through years of constant danger. Jasmine was decent enough with a wand due to her father's insistence that she work at defense, but she just didn't have the skills that her counterpart had acquired after years of training.

Moody grunted in reply and he barked out, "You'll join this lot in training. Every Friday and Saturday night from eight to ten." And with a shake of the head and an admonishment of "constant vigilance!", Moody was off.

Jasmine looked to James who just shrugged. "You'll get use to him."

James finished the introductions with Frank and Alice Longbottom. The couple seemed very pleasant and loving. Jasmine wondered how different Neville's life would be if he had his parents raising him instead of his domineering grandmother. She silently vowed to herself that she'd make it happen.

As Jasmine apparated back to the manor with James and Lily, she was still contemplating how to expose Peter Pettigrew. The Order was essentially handicapped with him in their midst. Anything they did would be reported to Voldemort and they would never be able to gain the upper hand in the war with Peter around.

She was once more thinking on the problem as she got ready for bed. If I can't get rid of Pettigrew now, maybe I should turn my attention to the horcruxes. Those are something I can handle. After mulling over the myriad ways to retrieve the different horcruxes, she decided that she would try for the locket horcrux first thing tomorrow morning.

Xxx

Jasmine checked that she had her shrunken broom in her left pocket, her precious willow and unicorn hair stylus in her right pocket, her runes knife strapped to her forearm and her Pine and unicorn hair wand holstered in her arm holster before she apparated to the cliff outside the cave.

She placed a warming spell on herself before bracing herself and jumping into the cold water. With sure strokes, Jasmine reached the cave entrance. As she clambered out of the water, Jasmine observed the wards surrounding the cave.

'How crude,' she thought with a sniff. Voldemort had placed a ward on the cave's entrance that required blood to be spilt before anyone could move forward. Voldemort was an amateur, Jasmine concluded. She promptly summoned a squirming snake from nearby and cut its side, letting the drops of blood fall onto the concealed door.

The entrance opened with a loud grinding sound and Jasmine was met with a scene out of a horror movie. Hoards of undead Inferi were rising from the lake, all heading towards the island in the middle of the lake where a familiar looking young man was making his final stand. He looked too weak to continue fighting but he was still managing to maintain the wall of fire around himself that was preventing the Inferi from getting to him.

Jasmine considered her options in a split second. Even with an extra person fighting against the Inferi, the two of them were unlikely to win. Her best bet was to grab the young man who looked so much like her cousin's best friend and get out of the cave.

With her decision made, Jasmine removed her wand from its holster and began drawing runes in the air to break the anti-flying ward as quickly as she could manage. She nearly lost her concentration when she saw the young man faultering. The man had passed out from exhaustion and the Inferi were closing in.

'Finally!' She thought frantically to herself as she finished the last rune. The moment the wards fell, Jasmine unshrunk her broom and raced over to the island. The Inferi were reaching for the man but Jasmine conjured a fire whip to keep them away.

She reached down with her non-casting hand and the adrenaline going through her system helped her yank the man onto the broom in front of her. With her right arm furiously throwing fireballs at the approaching Inferi and her left arm firmly clasped around the unconscious figure before her, Jasmine flew as quickly as she could out of the cave.

Once outside the cave, she quickly put up a containment ward and only when she was done did Jasmine breathe easier. She looked at the man in her arms with some curiosity and a tinge of hope.

She made an educated guess and came to the conclusion that the man she was holding was Regulus Black, Sirius' younger brother. Jasmine was quite sure she was right.

He certainly looked like a Black and honestly, why else would the Inferi be attacking him if he was not trying to steal the horcrux? Plans revolved around Jasmine's head and she smiled down at her hopefully soon to be ally as she apparated to her parents' townhouse with a pop that sounded suspiciously cheerful.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, favourites, and follows. I hope you all like this new chapter.

To clarify a few things that I have been asked. 1]. I cannot speak French so forgive me if I make any mistakes regarding the language or culture. 2]. I think that this fic will not be longer than 20 chapters, but plans change and so I can't confirm anything. 3]. When the time sand surrounded unspeakable Jasmine Potter, she ceased to exist. Her memories were transferred to her father's cousin and that's all that remains of her. James and Lily will have a child but since his cousin is alive, I doubt he will name his kid Jasmine if he ends up having a baby girl. And 4]. I've had pretty rotten luck recently. I sent my laptop for repair two months ago because it wasn't working well for me. Acer wants $389 for repair costs and so I'm holding off on repairing my laptop at the moment. My mum was gracious enough to let me use her spare netbook but it crashed two weeks after I started using it. Now I'm using my father's old laptop and am waiting eagerly for July. The university will sell laptops to students at a much cheaper price and I can hold on till then.

Well, that's it. TTFN.


	4. Chapter 3-The Alliance

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It all belongs to J. .

Chapter 3 - The Alliance

Jasmine apparated into the living room of her parents' townhouse. Although neither her nor her parents had lived in the home since the summer before when they came to England to visit the other Potters, the house was relatively clean and well-kept.

'Mipsy must have been by to clean,' Jasmine thought absently. She levitated Regulus' unconscious figure into one of the guest bedrooms and laid him down on the bed. Jasmine rummaged in the medicine cabinet for strengthening potion, pepper-up potions and a few others she thought might be good for him to have.

She placed all of the vials on the bedside table and then cast a few diagnostic charms on Regulus. There were remnants of the Draft of Nightmares in his system but other than that, he just seemed exhausted. Jasmine promptly stuffed a bezore down his throat and waited for it to neutralize the poison.

She sent a patronus message to James, telling him that she was out visiting with a friend and not to wait up for her. Then Jasmine drew up a cushioned armchair to the side of the bed, picked up the morning's Daily Prophet, and waited patiently for Regulus to wake up.

Xxx

Rotting flesh was closing in on him. Cold, pale hands were reaching for him, trying to pull him down, down, down into the depths of the dark lake. He was no Gryffindor, but he fought valiantly onwards, refused to give up. Just as he felt the last of his strength leaving him, he saw the hidden doorway open and reflected in the entrance was an angel.

When Regulus Black finally came to, he was feeling sore all over. His limbs were heavy and it took a tremendous amount of effort to lift his eyelids. The last thing he remembered was a hoard of Inferi attacking him. Even though he wanted to go back to sleep, he had to know where he was and what had happened to him.

He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar setting. The room he was in had a cozy feel to it. The walls were painted sky blue and the thick fur carpet and heavy mahogany furniture complemented them very well. Regulus wondered where he was. This definitely was not Grimmauld Place.

He turned his head to the side and spotted the angel. She had the most arresting pair of emerald eyes he had ever seen, with long silky black hair and creamy skin. For a suspended moment, Regulus thought that he was in heaven and that was why she was here. Then his brain kick-started and Regulus gave himself a mental slap. He couldn't be dead. He felt far too alive, too real, too solid. He tried to ask her who she was but all that came out was a croak.

The mysterious lady held out a glass of water to his lips and Regulus drank greedily. He was finally able to speak, although his words came out weaker and softer than he intended. "Who are you? Where am I?"

She sat back in her chair and regarded him intently. "My name is Jasmine Potter and you are now in the guest room of my London Townhouse. I rescued you from those inferi and brought you here after you fell unconscious."

Regulus shuddered involuntarily as the memories of fighting the undead hoard assaulted his mind. If Jasmine Potter had not come along, he would be just another body in Voldemort's undead army. He forced himself up into a sitting position and looked straight into her eyes. He did not care that she was a complete stranger, that she must have secrets of her own in order to know about the cave, that he was showing weakness before her. Somehow, he trusted her instinctively.

"I am Regulus Arcturus Black, Miss Potter," he spoke firmly and without wavering. "And I thank you for saving me from those unnatural creatures. I am forever in your debt. If there is anything that I can do to repay the debt, please do not hesitate to inform me."

Xxx

Jasmine observed the young man sitting before her keenly. Regulus had straight black hair and startling steel-grey eyes. He looked very much like his brother. They both had the classically handsome aristocratic features of the Blacks. However, whereas his brother exuded charm, Regulus seemed more serious, more grounded, like someone who was taking on an enormous burden upon himself. Jasmine understood how he felt. She considered her options carefully. She had to handle the situation with caution. Regulus could be her first and only ally. She did not want to mess that up.

"There is no debt owed, "Jasmine said slowly and stilled the protest she could see on his tongue. "I did what any decent human being would have done."

"But we do not see that many decent human beings in the world nowadays, do we?" Regulus asked cynically. "You saved my life, Miss Potter, and that is something that must not be forgotten."

"I do not intend to forget it." She said seriously. "But I do not feel comfortable with you indebted to me, especially when I hope to forge an alliance based on mutual aid with you."

Regulus seemed to perk up at that. "What sort of help can we offer one another?"

Jasmine needed some time to phrase her request. She stood up elegantly and offered a hand to Regulus. "Do you think you are strong enough to get up? I believe the matter is best discussed after dinner. You must be feeling starved after fighting those creatures for so long."

Leaning on Jasmine's supportive shoulder, Regulus managed to walk to the dining room and seat himself at the long dining table. Jasmine took a seat opposite him and clapped her hands once to signal Mipsy. In seconds, a veritable feast appeared before them and Regulus dug in with gusto after seeing Jasmine pick up her fork.

After a few minutes, he slowed down and smiled at her. "This is excellent. Give my complements to the chef." Jasmine smiled back and made a mental note to tell Mipsy that her cooking was top-notch as usual.

With their stomachs filled and dinner cleared away, Jasmine clasp her hands before her and got straight to the point. "I know you were there to retrieve His horcrux."

Regulus' shoulders tensed and Jasmine could see him reaching for something to defend himself with. She held out her hands placatingly. "I swear that I am no death eater, I have no intentions to hurt you. Please calm down. I was at the cave because of the very same reason you were."

"Explain" That one word was so commanding, so demanding, so full of authority that Jasmine immediately clarified her point.

"I was at the cave to retrieve Voldemort's-"at the name, Regulus flinched. "-horcrux as well. I intend to destroy all of those abominations. I know you want the same thing. That is why I propose an alliance. We will help each other, look out for each other, and vow never to betray each other."

She could not read those grey eyes. "How did you find out about the horcruxes if you are not a death eater and what is your motivation for doing this?" he questioned casually, as if they were not talking of one of the darkest forms of magic in existence. She could see that he was wearing a mask of indifference and at the first sign of danger, he was going to bolt.

Jasmine bit her lip nervously. If she could not convince him, she would be alone once more. "I cannot tell you how I know about the horcruxes without a vow of silence," she began hesitantly, and she saw understanding in his eyes. Slytherins kept secrets close to their chests after all. You never knew when someone would turn on you. "But I can tell you that I wish for the mad man's death. He killed my family and every day he is not stopped, he continues to kill innocence. He will destroy the whole magical world at the rate he is going. Will you help me? Join my cause to take him down?" she asked with conviction in her voice. She was certain of what she had to do, whether he joined her or not.

Jasmine waited anxiously as she watched him mull the proposition over carefully in his mind. He was in a very precarious position and needed to decide whether she was worth having as an ally. When he finally gave a slow but firm nod, she let out an inward sigh of relief. She did not know what she would have done if he said no.

"An unbreakable vow of mutual aid, protection and silence then?" Regulus looked into her eyes and questioned her, as if testing her resolve.

"Yes," Jasmine confirmed. She called softly for Mipsy who materialized with a tiny pop beside her. "Mipsy will witness the oaths."

Regulus simply nodded in agreement and reached out for her hand. She was the one who began the vows.

"Regulus Arcturus Black, do you swear to aid Jasmine Diane Potter in her mission to eradicate all of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes?"

"I do."

"Regulus Arcturus Black, do you swear to protect Jasmine Diane Potter to the best of your ability while you two are working together?"

"I do."

"Regulus Arcturus Black, do you swear never to reveal the secrets of Jasmine Diane Potter through verbal communication, writing, or otherwise?"

"I do."

They reversed roles after Regulus was done reciting his vows and Jasmine also vowed to aid Regulus in destroying the horcruxes, protecting him from dangers, and keeping his secrets. When the final oath was spoken, Regulus slumped in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. It was then that Jasmine realized how he too was relieved to have someone to confide with and to share the burden of knowledge with.

They studied each other across the dining table and it was Regulus who spoke first. "Now that I have sworn the oath, will you tell me how you knew of the horcruxes? They are the foulest of black magic and I would not expect someone from the light-orientated Potter family to know of them."

With the oaths, Jasmine no longer feared that he might betray her, but she worried that he might think her mad. 'Well, here goes nothing,' she thought grimly, and proceeded to tell him everything, from the deaths of her parents, to the influx of foreign memories, to her joining the Order. All the while, Regulus listened to her story without commenting. He just patiently waited for her to finish.

As she wrapped up her tale, Regulus leaned back in his chair. She could see the thoughts whirring in his head. "It all sounds incredible. Time travel? The memories from another life? All the evidence points to the fact that you are telling the truth, however." He tapped his fingers absent-mindedly on the table top. "How else would you know about Voldemort's horcruxes? And honestly, strange things can happen with the existence of time magic."

"So you believe me?" She let out a sigh of relief when he absent-mindedly nodded, still in deep thought. She was so happy to have someone share her secret. She felt the urge to reach over the table and hug him but she restrained herself. "Well," she tried to snap him back to the present. "Will you tell me your story then? It's really important for us to understand each other if we are going to work together."

Regulus' grey eyes met her emerald ones, as if weighing her worth, before he began his tale. "As you know, I am a pureblood from the main branch of the ancient and most noble house of Black. Blood purity has always been the family's ideology." 'That's an understatement,' Jasmine thought but did not interrupt him.

"The ones who did not espouse the pureblood doctrine were disowned and burned off the family tree," he continued, and Jasmine could see the regret in his face. "When my brother got sorted into Gryffindor and started championing the rights of 'filthy half-bloods and mudbloods', my parents focused all of their efforts on me. I was their only chance for a proper pureblood heir and I guess I was taken in by what they said. I eagerly joined the death eaters to prove myself to my parents, to show them that I was a worthy son." Regulus rolled up his sleeve and Jasmine saw the grotesque dark mark marring his skin.

"And do you still believe in blood supremacy?" Jasmine asked quietly.

"No." She saw that his eyes were unreadable again. "I was a boy playing at being an adult. I didn't truly understand what the death eaters did. My mother told me stories of how they were bringing glory back to the pureblood lines and I believed her." He clenched his fist. "How can I support the dark lord after all I have seen? They all bleed and die, same as us. However, you must not mistake me for an angel," he sent her a sharp look to emphasise his point.

"I don't think that I will ever truly like the muggleborns. They are coming into our world and scoffing at our traditions and our customs, refusing to integrate themselves into the society, but they do not deserve to die for that. Neither do those pureblood families who oppose the dark lord. There are so few of us left that he is on his way to eradicating purebloods all together." He looked sympathetically at her as he mentioned the pureblood families that Voldemort had killed and Jasmine looked down to hide her grief from him.

"One day, the dark lord asked to use my family's elf and I obliged him by allowing him to use Kreacher. He ordered Kreacher to drink the draft of nightmares so that he could place the horcrux in the cave. The dark lord would have left him to die, but I had previously ordered Kreacher to return home and so Kreacher obeyed my orders. The poor elf was frightened out of his mind when he returned to me." His eyes flashed with anger and Regulus had to take a deep breath before continuing.

"I had long suspected that the dark lord must have done something to himself. He often boasted of being immortal and I could only guess at what he might have done to make himself so mutilated and gruesome looking. When Kreacher told me of the cave and the locket, I came to the conclusion that he had split his soul. To think that the monster had more than one horcrux, it is disgusting to contemplate." Regulus' face turned sour. "That's why I was at the cave, retrieving the locket and replacing it with a fake."

With the end of Regulus' story came silence. Both of them were thinking deeply. Jasmine summoned a sheath of parchment and some quills to her with a flick of her wand. "It's time to begin planning," she told him, getting them both to focus.

With quill poised, Jasmine broached what she felt was the most important topic. "Reg," she began and she was encouraged when he did not oppose the nickname, "is your occlumency good enough to keep out the dark lord?"

He seemed to puff up with arrogance at the question. 'Must be the Black in him,' Jasmine mused. "Of course. What do you take me for? I'm a Black. We have all been trained at a young age to keep out any intruders from our minds. How could you do anything sneakily if you were broad-casting your thoughts? "

Jasmine had suspected as much but was still happy to hear the confirmation. All the old families train their children in occlumency and Jasmine was sure that the Blacks would be no exception. She asked tentatively, "Then will you become the Order's spy in the death eater camp?" She knew that Severus Snape had not turned on his master yet. Lily was not in danger and he had no reason to do so. "I will not judge you, whatever you choose to do. It is a dangerous task." Her voice was reassuring and Regulus felt grateful to her. She cared about him, about what he felt and thought.

He thought about it for a long while and Jasmine was afraid she had somehow offended him. Finally he spoke. "The people he targets, they do not deserve to die. I want to help them, but I will not spy for Dumbledore. He is a grand manipulator and I have no desire to be his loyal lapdog. It would essentially be trading one master for another." Jasmine frowned at that. She knew that Dumbledore manipulated people, but was he truly that bad?

"How about this?" Regulus proposed. "You can be our go-between. Give him the information and claim it is from a secret source." She considered the idea and agreed with it. "I can do that." It was a pretty ingenious way to ensure Regulus did not come in contact with Dumbledore.

Jasmine checked a box on her mental list and brought up the next problem. She was quite happy with the alliance so far. She could sense that Regulus was a good person and wanted to take down Voldemort as much as she did. He was quite capable and intelligent to boot. That was definitely a plus. "We have to get rid of Pettigrew before I approach the Order with any information you give me to pass on." Jasmine tore a hole in her parchment as she thought of the rat.

"I didn't know that Pettigrew was a death eater, but that doesn't really matter," Regulus offered. "The dark lord probably has Pettigrew reporting directly to him. I think the easiest solution is for me to meet with my brother and pass on the information."

Jasmine wasn't so sure about that. "Will he listen to you? I take it that the two of you have not spoken to each other in a long time."

"Don't worry," Regulus smiled reassuringly. "No matter what has happened between us, we are still family and I believe he still cares for me, at least, enough to hear me out."

Jasmine decided not to argue and just move on. "And the locket horcrux? I think I'm close to a break through. I've nearly created fiendfyre containment wards." Regulus looked impressed at that and Jasmine basked in the feeling of accomplishment. "I just need to work out the kinks. If you are free Wednesday night, we can probably destroy it then," she offered with a hopeful smile.

Regulus nodded back in agreement and Jasmine could see the gleam of anticipation in his eyes. "How about communication?" he asked. "Letters are a security risk."

Jasmine's smug smile widened even more. She pulled out a tiny mirror from her robe pocket and offered it to him. "And why have you offered me a mirror?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.

"This," she tapped the mirror, "is not any ordinary mirror. I've transcribed miniscule runes on the back of the mirror. Tap it with your wand and call out 'Jasmine Potter'. My mirror will vibrate and alert me to a mirror call from you. It is a completely secure way of communication. No one can tap into our conversation. Just make sure not to lose it. It was quite difficult making it."

Regulus stowed the mirror into one of his inner pockets after curiously peering at the runes that were barely visible on the back of the mirror. Jasmine was feeling a little tired and decided to wrap up the meeting. "Unless you have a better suggestion, I think we can use this place as our headquarters. It is the best place for us to meet since no one is living here at the moment. The place has been warded to the teeth and I can guarantee that no one can get in here without my permission."

"This place is good," Regulus agreed. "I really have nowhere else to suggest."

"I think we are done for today. We've covered a lot in the short meeting. So we will meet here on Wednesday night at eleven then?"

Regulus agreed affably and Jasmine showed him to the door. Once outside the wards, he gave her a friendly wave before apparating away. 'There's no better way than a near-death experience to create and solidify a life-long friendship,' Jasmine smiled to herself as she too got ready to apparate back to the manor.

A/N: Hope you enjoy this new chapter. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows. I'm pretty happy that this story is so well-liked.


	5. Chapter 4 - A traitor is discovered

Disclaimer: I do not own the plot or characters of Harry Potter. It all belongs to J. .

Chapter 4-A traitor is discovered

Regulus took a deep breath to calm himself before knocking thrice on his brother's door. The last time he saw his brother was at the Hogwarts graduation ceremony two years ago and he really missed Sirius. Even though Sirius had denounced his family, Regulus would always consider him his brother in his heart. He could not forget the boy who was his constant playmate as a child, who protected him from their parents and who was his only friend before he went to Hogwarts.

When the door finally opened, Regulus was slightly disappointed to find Sirius pointing his wand in his face. He slowly raised his hands to show he was unarmed. The look of distrust on his brother's face broke his heart but Regulus buried those emotions and tried for a neutral expression. "Hello, Sirius. May I come in?" he asked despite the slight misgivings he had.

Sirius' wand did not waver as he spat back a response. "What do you want, Death Eater? Here to kill me? I'm not going down without a fight."

Regulus felt like rolling his eyes in exasperation. His brother could be so dramatic at times. He refrained from doing so as he did not want to provoke his volatile brother. He spoke slowly and in a calm voice. "My wand is in my arm holster, you can retrieve it if you want. Tie me up if it makes you feel better. Please just let me come in. I have something very important to speak to you about."

If he had not been watching Sirius' face so carefully, Regulus might have missed the flash of surprise that crossed it for the barest of moments. With his wand still focused on Regulus, Sirius reached out with his left hand for Regulus' arm holster and pocketed his oak and dragon heart string wand. He finally moved away from the door, allowing Regulus to enter the small apartment in front of him.

Regulus was keenly aware of the wand still trained on him and so he moved slowly so as not to startle his brother. He took a seat in one of the armchairs surrounding the coffee table and his brother sat opposite of him.

"What is this all about?" Sirius demanded impatiently. Regulus took a moment to compose his thoughts before speaking.

"Would you mind checking for eavesdropping charms?" Regulus felt he was justified in asking for the precaution. If any of the dark lord's servants knew he was talking to Sirius, his life would be forfeited. "And can you set up a privacy bubble?" he added anxiously. Sirius impatiently did so and then crossed his arms.

"What is it that you want? If this is a family matter, I'm not interested. I was disowned, remember?" Regulus could hear the bitterness in his brother's voice and decided to divert his attention.

"No matter what has happened between you and the family, I still consider you my brother," Regulus began cautiously. "You were my first and only friend when we were children and I cannot forget the experiences we have shared. I still love you and will never wish you dead. For this, I will tell you that you have a traitor in the Order of the phoenix. "

Sirius sat up straighter in his chair and Regulus could see that he had gained his brother's full attention. His grey eyes held less suspicion and he had even lowered his wand. It was still gripped tightly in his hand but Regulus was happy not to have it pointing in between his eyes any longer.

"We have suspected for some time that there was a traitor," Sirius muttered distractedly. "But it is hard to believe one of ours would join Voldemort." Sirius leaned forward and fixed his intense gaze on his brother. "Who is it, Reg?"

Regulus forced himself not to flinch at the name of his master. This was the part Regulus was most anxious about. He worried that his impulsive brother would curse him before thinking clearly over what he had to say. Nevertheless, he fortified himself and spoke the traitor's name. "Peter Pettigrew."

Sirius' eyes were blazing with fury and he was raising his wand to curse Regulus as he had previously feared. "How dare you accuse-"

Regulus was panicked now. Sirius just had to hear him out. He had to believe him. The words came pouring out rapidly. "He is a rat animagus you call Wormtail. That's why he is such a good spy-he can listen in on conversations without you knowing he is there. He has already revealed that the Order uses the Mckinnon's family home as headquarters and Voldemort plans to attack there during one of the meetings."

Sirius was taken aback by the information and Regulus could see the realization and hurt beginning to seep into his brother's eyes. He was on a roll now and had to get it all out before his brother stopped him. "Pettigrew has always envied you and Potter for being so much better than him in everything. He was the weak link in your group and so the dark lord used that against him. He seduced him with the promise of power and that convinced him to join up two years ago. He has been the spy in the Order ever since he joined last year." Regulus let out a deep breath when he was done and prayed that his brother would believe him.

He could see his brother getting angry again, but this time, the anger was not directed at him. Sirius was moving to get out of his armchair and Regulus placed a hand on his shoulder to push him back into his seat. "Calm down," he cautioned. "You cannot just go chase down the rat."

"And why not?" The anger was simmering under the surface and Regulus knew he had to tred carefully.

"You need back up before confronting him," Regulus told him bluntly. "He may appear unassuming, but who knows what he is capable of? He managed to trick you for a year. Best not to take any chances. Make sure you bring Veritaserum for interrogation purposes. The glamour on Pettigrew's arm was cast by the dark lord himself so I suggest you have Dumbledore there to disperse it. Honestly, the best thing to do is for you to wait for the next meeting to confront him. Please, Sirius, don't be so impulsive. I often fear for you," he told him earnestly.

Sirius let out an explosive sigh. "As much as I hate to admit it, you are right." He calmed down and looked at his brother then. "Reg, thank you for telling me this," he said sincerely. "I can only imagine the trouble you will get into if anyone saw you coming here. Don't worry, "he said fiercely, "I'll make sure no harm will come to you because of this. I swear it. "

Regulus smiled sadly at his brother. "We may be on opposing sides, Sirius, but you are still my brother, and I'd still trust you with my life." Sirius surprised him by getting up and giving him a huge bear hug which Regulus returned fiercely after he got over the shock of it.

Xxx

Jasmine had to consciously stop herself from repeatedly turning to look at the door to the meeting room. Regulus had called her earlier that day on the enchanted mirror to tell her about his encounter with his brother and to give her a heads up that Sirius would be confronting Pettigrew during the Order meeting. She was impatient for the meeting to start. All the waiting was making her jittery and nervous.

Sirius finally showed up five minutes before the meeting time, sauntering into the room as if he didn't have a care in the world. However, Jasmine noticed the tense set of his shoulders, and that he chose a seat near Pettigrew, close enough that any spell he shot off would not miss. She surreptitiously released her wand from its holster and began to twist it about. Anyone looking would assume she was simply fidgeting with it when in reality she was making sure that she could shoot off the body bind curse without any delay.

When Dumbledore finally arrived and called the meeting to order, Sirius sprang to his feet immediately, not giving anyone else a chance to report their findings. When he spoke, he did not look at Pettigrew but at Dumbledore. "Albus, before we get on with the meeting, I believe that there is something very important for us to discuss."

Dumbledore turned his twinkling blue eyes on Sirius, seemingly indulging his whims. "And what might that be, my boy?"

"The identity of the Order's traitor has recently come to my attention," Sirius replied casually while flicking his wand in the direction of Pettigrew to stupefy him. It happened in a split second, so fast that Pettigrew could not do more than flinch before the spell impacted. The room suddently became filled with noise and movement. Everyone was shouting over each other and some people were even pointing their wands at Sirius.

Everyone quietened when Dumbledore let out a blast of noise from his wand to take back command of the meeting. He was now completely serious and giving his full attention to the matter. "What proof do you have that Peter is the traitor?" he asked gravely. His eyes were hardened and focused on Sirius.

Sirius reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a vial of clear potion. "A reliable source informed me that Pettigrew has been passing on information to Voldemort for a year. He knows that the order uses the Mckinnon's country home as its headquarters. The source told me that Pettigrew has his dark mark hidden by powerful glamours cast by Voldemort himself and that if we want the truth, we should use veritaserum." Sirius offered the potions vial to Dumbledore, sealing Pettigrew's fate.

Dumbledore took the bottle and frowned in concentration as he cast the appropriate charms to check that the potion was truly the truth potion. When he was finally satisfied, he looked back up. "I hate to do this," he spoke to the room in general, "but we have to know if Peter is a death eater."

He approached the unconscious figure of Pettigrew. Frank Longbottom and Caradoc Dearborn who were sitting beside him moved their chairs away from the man to give everyone a clear shot at the traitor. Dumbledore first tied Pettigrew up in ropes before exposing his unmarred forearm. He then beckoned Lily over to his side. "Lily, charms are your specialities, will you check for the glamours? I'm afraid that I sense them but am unsure of how to remove them without alerting the caster."

Jasmine noticed that Lily was shaking in shock but that she had a fierce look of concentration on her face as she withdrew her wand and pointed it at Pettigrew's forearm. She began muttering under her breath. 'Must be truly complicated spell work if Lily can't cast silently,' Jasmine thought. She was slightly surprised that Dumbledore admitted that Lily Potter, the charms prodigy had superior talent in her field of expertise than he did.

The area began shimmering after a few moments and soon enough the dark mark was visible for all to see. There were gasps and cries of alarm from all around the table. Those that had previously been skeptical of Pettigrew's guilt seemed finally to accept the truth. Jasmine spotted Remus Lupin and the Prewett twins shooting apologetic looks in Sirius direction, no doubt feeling sorry for pointing their wands at Sirius when the whole commotion started.

She felt sorry for her cousin, James. While most people had looks of shock and disgust on their faces, James looked crushed. No doubt because he had just lost one of his best friends. She reached for his hand under the table, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Sirius' face was thunderous. Perhaps some small part of him was hoping that Regulus' information was wrong. Yet, with the dark mark showing so clearly for all to see, there was no denying that one of the Marauders had tried to betray the Order of the Phoenix. He flicked his wand in a violent motion to wake Pettigrew up. The rat instantly began whimpering and blubbering.

Dumbledore sent Sirius a disapproving look but did not reprimand him. Instead, he forced Pettigrew's mouth open and dropped three drops of the truth serum on his tongue. "Allister, if you will." "Dumbledore took a step back and Mad-eye began the interrogation, being most familiar with such things as one of the veteran aurors.

"What is your name?" the gruff auror barked out as he set the dictaquill that he had pulled out from one of his coat pockets to the parchment that Marlene Mckinnon had rushed out of the room to retrieve.

"Pe-Peter Joseph Pettigrew." Jasmine could see that the man was clearly terrified but she felt no pity whatsoever for him.

"How long have you been a death eater?"

Jasmine could see that Pettigrew was willing himself not to speak but that the truth potion was giving him no choice. " tw-tw-two years." Jasmine saw James hang his head in shame. Lily went to comfort him. It must be difficult for him, trying to comprehend that one of his best friends had been a death eater in secret for two years without him noticing anything. That gave her even more reason to hate the rat.

The interrogation carried on with Pettigrew trying not to answer but eventually caving in. The order listened in mute horror as Moody discovered that Pettigrew had been passing on all of the Order's movements to the death eaters ever since he joined a year ago and that he had revealed the locations of the Dearborn, Mckinnon, Prewett and Bones homes to Lord Voldemort. It was his fault that Dorcas Meadows was ambushed and killed two weeks ago while returning home and that Benji Fenwick was torn to shreds by Greyback during the last full moon. Many patronuses were promptly dispensed to tell family members to vacate their homes and move to a safe location immediately. Dumbledore also gave some of the members leave to rush home to check on their young children.

Moody finally ended the interrogation with a disturbing smirk. "There's nothing more we can get from this rat. He only knows the identity of some of his fellow death eaters and Voldemort has not confided in him about any upcoming raids. It's time for the rat to go to Azkaban. I'll contact the auror office."

Jasmine felt a correspondingly vindictive smile appear on her face as she contemplated the rat languishing in Azkaban. Death was too good for him. He should suffer for all of the misery he caused his friends and allies. She hoped that the dementors would give him nightmares of the men and women he had indirectly killed through his actions.

After Pettigrew was tightly bound and four Order members escorted him to the ministry holding cells, the meeting resumed. No one was in the mood for more bad news and so Dumbledore kept the meeting short. The moment the meeting let out, Jasmine apparated back to the manor with Lily and James. She locked herself in her room and called Regulus on her mirror.

When his face appeared in the glass, she smiled brightly at him and the words came tumbling out of her mouth in a rush. "The traitor was exposed during the meeting. We interrogated him and now he is headed for Azkaban."

Regulus' grey eyes warmed at her excitement. "I'm glad. Sirius didn't lose his temper, did he?" he asked curiously. "I'd not be surprised if he did. He has always been too hot tempered."

Jasmine shrugged indifferently. "He was furious but he wasn't the only one there. Dumbledore and Moody took control so it was no big deal."

Regulus let out an audible sigh of relief. "Are we still on for tonight? I'm feeling so nervous about the whole thing," he admitted. Jasmine was happy that Regulus trusted her enough to be open with her and so she smiled back at him.

"Of course. Meet me at the townhouse at eleven. I'll bring all of the materials. All you have to do is buy some fire whiskey so we can celebrate when the job is done," she teased with a quick grin, trying to help him relax.

It seemed to work as he smirked back at her and gave her a tiny bow. "Yes, my lady. Nothing but the best for you."

After saying her good-byes, Jasmine went down for dinner with her family. All throughout the meal, her mind was on other things and she just nodded along as James and Lily discussed Pettigrew with the elder Potters.

Xxx

Regulus had his hood up as he apparated in front of Jasmine's family townhouse. He checked that he had the locket secured before knocking softly on the door. It opened so quickly that he suspected that Jasmine must have been waiting on the other side for him.

She had her wand out in a loose grip. They exchanged security questions before she fully opened the door and ushered him in. He took her in from head to toe and arched an eyebrow. "Jasmine, do you need to change before we go?" He eyed the stylish and elegant midnight blue robes she was wearing. They were embroidered with silver thread at the sleeves and hem. She looked like she was getting ready to stroll along the fashionable sections of Diagon alley, not head off to destroy a part of the dark lord's soul.

She huffed angrily in reply to his question. "I'll have you know that these robes are made of acromentula silk." Jasmine pinched the material between her fingers to emphasise her point." It is not only comfortable to wear but is also very spell-resistant and durable. The way they look is just a bonus." She fixed him with a cold gaze, daring him to give further comment on her choice of apparel.

Regulus wisely decided not to push the point. 'Note to self,' he thought with an internal flinch, 'never imply that a woman is inappropriately dressed.' He took hold of the bag she handed him and watch Jasmine lock up in silence.

She reached for his arm and guided their apparition. When the world materialized in front of them, Regulus found they were standing in a deserted clearing with trees all around. "Where are we?" he asked curiously.

Jasmine seemed to have gotten over her snit and announced happily, "We are in the forest of Dean. It is the perfect place for us to do this. There is no one around for miles." She used her wand to clear a small area and took the bag from Regulus.

Pulling out a large slab of smooth marble [which Regulus was sure would never have fit into the small bag without an extension charm], Jasmine laid it on the ground at her feet. She then used her Stylus to draw a bright white circle of magic on the ground which she anchored to the marble slab. She knelt down and began drawing runes around the circle of magic and connected them to the marble slab.

Regulus watch her draw the runes in fascination. He took ancient runes as one of his electives, but he hardly understood anything she was carving. What she was doing must truly be advanced work, he mused.

The process of setting up the ward for the tiny area in front of them took Jasmine perhaps two hours of continuous work to finish. Neither of them spoke during that time. Jasmine needed all of her concentration to ensure all went well and Regulus kept silent for her. He just watched her work intently.

She finally stood up from her position kneeling on the ground and brushed off the grass stains from her robes. "It's done," she said confidently. "Put the locket in the middle of the circle," she instructed him.

Regulus carefully stepped over the circle, making sure not to accidentally touch any of the runes. He gently laid down the ornate locket with a large 'S' on the front inscribed in emeralds. He stepped out of the circle when he was done and went to stand beside Jasmine. "What now?" he asked.

"Now," she explained, "You will have to cast the fiendfyre and I will activate the runes." She had her wand out, poised to tap the activation key.

Seeing she was so confident, Regulus' nerves were slightly soothed. His hands were steady as he held his wand and cast the worse and most destructive fire curse known to wizard-kind. His voice was commanding as he spoke the fiendfyre curse and all sorts of creatures formed out of the cursed fire sprouted from his wand and began prancing about, namely dragons, manticores and hydras.

The moment Regulus spoke the curse, Jasmine tapped the activation key and watched as a translucent dome sprang up over the area she had marked, trapping the cursed fire. Regulus breathed out in amazement beside her as he watch the dome protect them from the fiendfyre and Jasmine had to agree with his sentiment. This was truly the work of a brilliant runes master. She felt giddily triumphant as she watch the fire consume the locket.

They heard a horrible scream coming from the locket and a black mist rose from it, which was summarily consumed by the fire. Jasmine and Regulus stood there, watching the fire burn itself out. When the last ambers disappeared, Jasmine could not help the ear-splitting grin that was on her face. She turned to Regulus and his expression mirrored hers.

She tackled him in a hug and he exuberantly returned her embrace. "Did you buy the fire whiskey?" she asked breathlessly through her ecstatic laughter.

He spun her around in his arms. "Of course I did, I have a few bottles shrunken down in my robe pocket. I even bought the good stuff." With a pop, the two of them disappeared from the clearing, off to the townhouse to celebrate their victory against the dark lord with Voldemort having nary a clue.

A/N: Welcome to my new readers! Thank you for following and favouriting this story. I hope this new chapter meets with your approval.


	6. Chapter 5-The Escape

Disclaimer: I do not own the plot of Harry potter. It all belongs to J.

Chapter 5-The escape

Jasmine woke up to a pounding headache and her hair all over the place. They were both having such fun last night, talking and laughing, drinking glass after glass of fire whiskey and snacking on chips as they chatted about everything under the sun. She felt so comfortable with him and told him things she hadn't told anyone. Somehow, and Jasmine wasn't quite sure of the specifics, they had challenged each other to a drinking game and had both passed out.

She was curled up on the large couch in the family room while Regulus was scrunched up in an armchair a few feet away. 'That can't be comfortable,' she thought to herself. His arms were hanging over the sides and he looked close to falling out of his seat. She observed him for a moment and had to admit, he looked rather handsome in the morning light. His features were smooth, as if he had no troubles in the world. His black hair was falling into his face and Jasmine felt that made him look adorable.

She tried to sit up and felt nauseous. Jasmine immediately brought her hands to her head in an attempt to stem her headache but it was no help at all. She vowed never to drink ever again. Jasmine let out a pained groan and tried calling for Mipsy but all that came out was a croak. On her second try, Mipsy apparated into the room with an extraordinarily loud pop. Regulus started awake and Jasmine could see he was clearly feeling as miserable as she was.

"Could you get us two hang over potions, Mipsy?" Jasmine whispered to the elf, trying not to aggravate her poor head.

The wretched creature only pasted an innocent smile on her face and seemed to speak louder than normal. "Mipsy is sorry, missy Jasmine, but Master Andrew told Mipsy to throw out all of the Hang over potions the last time missy came back drunk from a party."

Over by the side, Regulus snickered weakly and Jasmine shot him a half-hearted scowl. She wracked her brain for a solution and was extremely proud she could think of one in her condition. "Go to Diagon Alley and buy us a couple of hang over potions from the apothecary, will you?" Jasmine passed over a couple of galleons and Mipsy popped away without saying anything.

Regulus stretched out in his armchair, getting out all the kinks in his back. "I'm never drinking again," he said fervently. "Next time, we can go out to dinner if we need to celebrate."

Jasmine was inclined to agree with him. "I'd say good morning but both of us know that is the farthest from the truth." She managed to get up and was hopeful that her headache didn't seem to be getting worse. "Mipsy should be back soon."

True to her prediction, Mipsy returned with a loud pop and the both of them winced simultaneously. The elf handed over the potions with a disapproving frown and they gulped it down like it was nectar.

"Up for breakfast?" Jasmine asked her companion wryly when she heard his stomach rumbling. Regulus simply smiled sheepishly back at her. A couple of minutes later, they found themselves in front of a small and homey café in the heart of muggle London.

"Must we really eat here?" Regulus grumbled as he eyed the muggles all around them suspiciously. Jasmine slapped his arm lightly. "They really aren't that bad. The only difference between us and them is that we have magic and they don't. And honestly, it's not like we can go to the leaky cauldron for a bite. If anyone spotted us together-". Jasmine drew a finger over her neck to emphasise her point.

Regulus slipped into the booth without further complaint after that and they both had an enjoyable time away from the war just chatting and enjoying a scrumptious meal. As they were finishing up their morning tea, Regulus brought up something he had been thinking about for quite a while.

"I've been thinking," he began contemplatively. "My brother handled the Pettigrew situation quite well. Perhaps I could pass on any relevant information about the death eaters I find out to him. Half of our family are death eaters and the rest are somehow associated with them in one way or the other." Regulus grimaced at the admission and took another sip of tea. "Voldemort would have a hard time trying to locate his spy that way. Also, if Sirius brings the information to the Order, no suspicion will fall on you. If you brought them information, they might insist on knowing who your source is and might dig into your secrets. We can't have them discovering about the memories."

Jasmine considered his proposal and spoke slowly, trying to get her thoughts in order. "You are right, we can't have anyone else finding out about the memories. The best scenario would be that they'd lock me up in the department of mysteries, trying to study me. I'd hate that."

"All right," Regulus concluded decisively. "Sirius will be my contact in the Order. He can be impulsive at times but I'd trust him with my life regardless."

"I'd best be off," Jasmine confessed as she drained the last of her tea. "James is probably wondering where I am." They left a large tip for the waitress before walking out of the café. Regulus offered his arm like a gentleman and she took it as they strolled back to the alley they had apparated into.

"I'll see you soon," Jasmine said as she hugged him and stood on her tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek. She had to look away so he would not see her blush. With a swirl of her cloak and a tiny pop, she disappeared from the alley. Regulus touched his cheek and smiled softly. He disappeared seconds after her.

Xxx

Regulus felt disgusted by the sight before him. It was a few days after he and Jasmine had destroyed the locket horcrux and he was standing by the side of the room, watching as the dark lord made Pettigrew grovel before him and kiss his robes.

He frowned as he observed the man kneeling before the dark lord. It did not surprise him that Pettigrew managed to escape. All he had to do was wait for a guard to bring him his meal in the ministry holding cell and slip pass him in his rat form. The ministry cells were not as well protected as Azkaban and it was no problem for Lucius Malfoy to bribe a guard to 'accidentally' miss the rat sneaking out of his cell.

"And you say that Sirius Black exposed you, wormtail," the dark lord hissed with displeasure as he looked down at the creature at his feet. "Tell me, how did he find out you were the spy in the first place?"

The pitiful creature could only whimper and stammer out, "I-I don't know, my lord. H-He said that he had a source who told him about me."

The dark lord's cruel gaze swept over all of the gathered death eaters and Regulus knew he was noting how many Blacks he had in his service and how many others were friends with or somehow were acquainted with Blacks. Most people in the room were suspects because they were either related to Blacks or somehow knew one of them. Thank goodness for his large family.

The dark lord kicked Pettigrew away with a sneer on his grotesque face and the rat crawled into the shadows of the large room. He had those somehow related to Sirius to come up to him and kneel subserviently before him.

Regulus watched dispassionately as the dark lord ruthlessly dove into Bellatrix's and Lucius' minds and then crucioed them when he did not find the information he wanted. He braced himself for his turn and brought certain memories to the front of his mind.

Those horrible red eyes met his and Regulus let the dark lord in with little resistance. Images flashed before his eyes. He saw his brother declaring to him that he was pathetic for believing in pureblood supremacy and for being sorted into Slytherin. He saw his brother taunting him and his fellow Slytherins, playing cruel pranks on them and when Regulus was very young, driving him to tears. He saw his mother blasting Sirius off the family tapestry and Sirius shooting him a look full of hatred and resentment. Regulus brought up every negative memory associated with his brother, and there were many to choose from.

The dark lord soon pulled out of his mind and Regulus inwardly let out a sigh of relief. He had seen what Regulus wanted. All of the important memories, of him and Jasmine, of meeting with his brother, of the locket, were all locked away at the furthest reaches of his mind, behind countless numbers of diversionary memories. No one would ever bother digging that deep.

It seemed as though the dark lord would pass over Regulus for a second but he did not. The yew wand was turned on Regulus and he felt horrible, bone-aching pain. All of his nerves were on fire and Regulus fell face-first onto the floor in agony. He began tearing at his own skin, trying to get the terrible pain to cease. His body was jerking and twisting uncontrollably and he felt blood in his mouth as he bit down on his tongue. He couldn't help himself from crying out and begging the dark lord to stop. Regulus felt so humiliated, so disgusted with himself. When and how had he been reduced to this?

With a negligent flick of his wand, the curse was lifted and Regulus crawled to the side, trying to get away from the target range of the dark lord. From there, the dark lord moved on to question and torture so many others and Regulus could see that he was getting more and more frustrated as the spy evaded him. He could not bring himself to pity any of the others. He was in too much pain from his own torture session to feel much of anything.

He thought of Jasmine's smile and somehow, it didn't hurt so much. He was doing this for her and for his brother and for all the innocence who didn't deserve to die. When the dark lord dismissed all of his death eaters, he promptly apparated to Jasmine's family town house to see her beautiful face and to tell her about Pettigrew's escape.

xxx

Jasmine felt someone trip the wards at her family's town house and stopped the work she was doing on a new rune array to apparate there. No one but Regulus could enter the home and she was worried about what could have happened to cause him to show up in the middle of the afternoon.

She let herself in through the front door and went looking for him with her wand out at the ready. She found him shaking and curled up in a ball on her couch and rushed over to him. He looked horrible with scratches all over his body and when Jasmine put a hand on his shoulder, he shied away from her touch.

Hatred for the person who did this to him bubbled up in her. Nevertheless, she kept such emotions out of her voice and spoke to him in a soft and gentle tone. "Regulus, its' me, Jasmine. I'll levitate you into the guest room, all right?" He made a small sound of consent and she was as careful as she could be when she moved him. Her heart ached seeing him like this. She knew that she had begun to like him but she had no idea that she was in this deep.

Using a few diagnostic charms she had picked up from Lily, she could tell that he had a few cracked ribs and was suffering from over exposure to the Cruciatus curse. Jasmine was no expert on healing but she fixed his ribs the best she could and gave him some calming and nerve relaxant potions to deal with the after effects of the torture. She felt so helplessly frustrated because even after all that, she could tell he was still in agony.

Regulus sat up in bed. Jasmine tried to get him to lie down again but he was stubborn about it and refused. "I have to tell you something really important," he spoke weakly over her protests. "Pettigrew has escaped from the ministry holding cells. Lucius Malfoy bribed the auror guarding him."

Jasmine summoned a chair from the corner and sat down on it heavily. "Well, that isn't really unexpected," she sighed despondently. "The ministry is full of people willing to be paid off. Mad-eye moody probably knows now. There's an Order meeting later tonight. I expect that Pettigrew will be the main focus of tonight's talks."

She leaned forward and brushed a few locks of hair off his forehead and planted a soft kiss there. "Rest now, all right? She pleaded with him. "I'll stay with you until the meeting." Jasmine tucked him in under the covers and held his left hand in both of hers until he drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Xxx

"How could this have happened?" Sirius Black raged as he stood up from his seat and banged his fists onto the table. The fury he felt was reflected in his eyes and Jasmine could feel waves of magic rolling off him. He was dangerously close to losing control. Pettigrew's betrayal had hurt Sirius because he had counted Pettigrew amongst his family when his mother disowned him. He had always taken for granted that his friends would be there for him when his birth family wouldn't.

For the past week, James pretended that Pettigrew didn't exist and that he had never been a part of the Marauders. Jasmine supposed that must have been his way of coping with the betrayal. Remus seemed to have drawn in on himself and wasn't really talking to anyone. When she looked at him, she saw a vulnerable man who felt insecure about everything. He had always had difficulties making friends because of his lycanthropy and to have one of his few friends turn on him must have cut him to the quick.

"Cool that temper of yours, Black," Moody barked with both his normal eye and his electric blue eye focused on Sirius. "And sit down! Your childish tantrums aren't helping any."

Sirius apparently wanted to pick a fight because he immediately accused the auror department of being incompetent bafoons who couldn't contain a measly prisoner. Moody was about to curse him in Retaliation of the comment but Dumbledore brought the focus of the room back to himself.

"Peter is probably with Voldemort now," he said sternly to Sirius. "No matter how we search we will never find them. Now lets all calm down. Since there is nothing to do about that, perhaps we should turn our attention to other things." Dumbledore enquired about the recent raids of muggleborns and other light sided families before dismissing the Order with a weary sigh. Jasmine noted that she hadn't seen that characteristic Dumbledore twinkle in his eye throughout the whole meeting. Things must really be getting bad, she feared.

The moment the meeting let out, she apparated back to the town house to check on Regulus. Seeing him hurting so much only made her reflect bitterly on the cost of the war. 'Voldemort has caused friend to turn on friend. He has torn apart families and he has taken the lives of so many innocent people. What more will he exact from us?'

She watched Regulus until she fell asleep in the chair by his bedside, worrying and thinking of the task she and he had set before themselves. 'We just have five more horcruxes to go,' she chanted over and over again in her mind to reassure herself. It wasn't that helpful, but when Jasmine took hold of one of Regulus' hands, she felt less daunted and managed to drift off to sleep.

Xxx

A/N: Welcome to all my new readers! I'm pretty happy today because I got offered a place at the University of my Choice and so here's a chapter for you. To answer a few questions asked in the reviews:

1]. There will be no time paradoxes. This is an alternate universe. Unspeakable Jasmine ceased to exist when the time magic caused her memories to be transferred to Rune Mistress Jasmine. She disappeared from that universe and won't be appearing in this one either.

2]. Rune Mistress Jasmine won't simply be getting the skills of unspeakable Jasmine. She has not trained her body and reflexes the way that unspeakable Jasmine has and so she will not be as great a fighter as unspeakable Jasmine. Her area of expertise lies in runes and warding. She knows the spells that the other Jasmine does if she goes digging in her memory for them but she is not really one to fight on the frontlines.


	7. Chapter 6-The Gaunt Shack

Disclaimer: The characters and plot of Harry Potter belong to J. .

Chapter 6-The Gaunt Shack

Everyone, from the children playing outside to the elderly grandmother watering her precious flowers, noticed when a couple, dressed immaculately in designer clothes, drove through town on a huge black Harley-Davidson motorcycle and stopped for a drink at the local inn. Little Hangleton had not seen such obviously rich people pass by in a long time and the couple were fodder for the gossips for a whole week.

Regulus was basking in all the attention he was garnering from the residents of the town and Jasmine only rolled her eyes in exasperation. She supposed he couldn't help it. All Blacks were attention seekers to a certain extent after all. Jasmine took off the fashionable Ray-bans she was wearing and tossed them carelessly into the misleadingly innocent looking handbag she was caring. Merlin, she loved undetectable extension charms.

They strolled arm in arm into the town's only inn and took a seat near the windows so they could look outside. Regulus turned on the famous Black charm when the young waitress approached to take their order. Looking at him in that moment, Jasmine would never have guessed that Regulus, just like the rest of his fanatically pureblood family, used to hate muggles.

"I must say, this town is a pleasant surprise. I'd never have expected to find such lovely ladies hanging around this place." He used his good looks to his advantage and sent the poor blushing girl a deceptively innocent smile.

"I-I-Wh-what can I get you?" Jasmine took pity on the girl and ordered tea and scones for the two of them, diverting the girl's attention to her. The waitress bolted after hearing their order and sent a few quick looks over her shoulders to surreptitiously check out the new young and handsome man in town.

When she came back with their order, Regulus leaned forward on his hands and smiled a truly devastating grin at her and he soon subtly directed the topic to the Riddles and Gaunts. A true Slytherin, Jasmine mused fondly with an internal shake of the head.

The girl looked around suspiciously, as if to check for eavesdroppers. Then she leaned in conspiratorially and spoke in a hush tone, as if confiding a truly juicy piece of gossip. "No one likes talking about the Riddles around these parts. They used to live in the big house on top of the hill. You can see it if you follow the road and walk further down. The three of 'em were murdered in their own home! And now everyone's saying their house is haunted! The police couldn't determine the cause of death. It's like they simply dropped dead where they were…" She trailed off with an ominous silence.

Regulus sent her an encouraging look and Jasmine just leaned back in her chair and let him do all the work. The girl needed little prompting to continue. "If you ask me, the Gaunts were the ones who murdered the Riddle family. They are a nasty lot who live on the outskirts of town in a disgusting little shack. Rumour goes that the Gaunt girl was pregnant with Tom Riddle's baby when the two of them ran off and eloped out of the blue. Perhaps her brother murdered the Riddles in revenge…?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at Regulus, wanting him to agree with her assumption.

Regulus made a humming sound in the back of his throat. "And you say that this Gaunt Shack is a true hovel?"

The girl fell for the bait hook, line and sinker. She was brimming with excitement, anxious to share all she knew with the debonair stranger. "Oh yes, if you follow the main road about half a mile pass the Riddle's home, you will find a thicket of trees and overgrowth. The Gaunt shack is hidden in there. I'd not be surprised if moss has grown over it by now, blocking your view of the house. You have to know exactly where it is otherwise you might miss it."

Regulus made some more inane chatter with the waitress before she had to go off to serve another customer. The moment she left, Jasmine raised silencing wards around their table so no one could listen in on their conversation.

"It's a good thing we stopped here for directions to the Gaunt Shack," Jasmine said, eyeing Regulus speculatively. "We might not find it otherwise."

Regulus only nodded in agreement, sipping his tea and looking too smug for his own good. Although, Jasmine had to admit he did a good job getting the information from the waitress. He didn't ask outright about the Riddles and the Gaunts. He let the waitress tell them everything of her own accord.

"What I wonder," Jasmine spoke slowly," is how you managed to get Sirius to part with his precious motorbike." Her voice turned up at the end, as if to ask him how he accomplished the impossible Feat.

"That was easy," Regulus proudly boasted with a wicked smirk on his face. "I insinuated that I needed to borrow it so that I could show a lovely lady around town." At this, he winked at her. "And he handed over the keys without any fuss."

Jasmine stifled a giggle. "So he is under the impression that you're using his bike to get some gullible girl into your bed?"

"yes," Regulus confirmed amusedly. "He'd be horrified to find out that instead of doing that, I'm using it to go on a daring adventure to destroy the dark lord. Although, if you like, we could always do the former…" He trailed off suggestively.

"Focus," Jasmine chastised, although her cheeks were pink. "So, we'll drive there to get the ring and then drive out of the town. If all goes well, I hope to have this piece destroyed by tonight."

Regulus left a generous tip for the helpful waitress as they left the inn and made their way to the bike. He helped Jasmine on before taking his own seat. He reflected on how enjoyable it felt to have her arms around his waist. Bless be to Merlin that Sirius had taught him to drive the muggle contraption.

xxx

As they stopped in front of the thicket that the waitress had described, Jasmine reluctantly removed her arms from around Regulus' firm chest and got off the bike. She used her wand to clear some of the undergrowth which allowed her to see the tiny shack. She could feel a buzzing in the back of her mind, subtly telling her to turn away from this area but Jasmine was no amateur and easily deactivated the redirection wards.

She took out a magic-suppressing container from her bag and handed it to Regulus who was looking slightly apprehensive. She saw him visibly force himself to stand up straight and start looking around for any dangers. Jasmine was relieved that he didn't let his prior experience of retrieving horcruxes deter him. Perhaps he was a Gryffindor in a former life, Jasmine contemplated.

The wards were quite complex but nothing that Jasmine could not handle. Although Voldemort was skilled in warding, he had not spent years of dedication to achieve his mastery and so of course, he was no match for her. Voldemort's paranoia worked to her advantage as these wards had clearly been placed only by him. He did not trust any professional warder and so they were not nearly as impossible to overcome as he thought.

As she led the way into the tiny shack with her wand out in front of her, she felt the malevolent and oppressive presence of Voldemort's magic. She kept her eyes peeled and could see Regulus was doing the same with his wand held in a loose grip, ready to cast any spell in mere seconds.

Every surface and wall was covered in a thick layer of dust. She saw what she thought was shed snake skin in the corner. Jasmine cast a few detection charms and all of the signs pointed to a loose floorboard in the ground. She knelt down on the floor and used her ritual knife to pry up the loose board.

Jasmine felt a rush of excitement as she uncovered a hole in the floor. She peaked in and saw a tiny golden box. She cast a few detection charms and satisfied with the results, reached in to pull out the box.

She was curious and opened it to see the horcrux inside. The moment her eyes landed on the resurrection stone, her mind went blank. It was as if a fog had come over her. She watched detachedly as her hand moved to pick up and slip on the ring without her permission. Her mind was screaming at her to stop but she was helpless to do so in the face of the dark curse.

Regulus came out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground. She was forced to drop the box and ring. His weight forced all of the breath out of her and for a few long seconds, the two of them were as close as lovers as he lay atop of her, his face inches from hers. Both of them took harsh ragged breaths to steady their heartbeats.

Jasmine felt the blush on her face and averted her eyes from his. Seeing that she was back to herself, Regulus let her up cautiously. He still had his hand on her right arm, as if to ensure she wouldn't go chasing after the ring again.

"Thank you. I didn't notice the curse on the ring taking hold of me," Jasmine spoke quietly to Regulus' chest. She was feeling shaken by the ordeal. Jasmine knew what the curse did to Dumbledore. She was ashamed for not remembering about the curse. She was a runes Mistress for Merlin's sake. How could she be taken down by a curse like that? He brought her in for a hug and they remained in the embrace a few seconds longer than necessary.

"It's fine," he spoke softly into her hair as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. "The important thing is that you didn't put the ring on. You don't have as much experience as I do with the dark arts and trust me; the curse on that ring is amongst the most deceptive pieces of magic I have ever seen. Don't blame yourself for almost succumbing to its sway."

She felt a little better after hearing his reassurances. Jasmine let Regulus levitate the ring into the magic suppressing container they had prepared for such cases. She watched him place a fake ring in the golden box before closing it and replacing it in the hole.

Making sure that everything was the same as when they came in, the two of them made their way cautiously out of the tiny house and Jasmine reactivated all of Voldemort's wards. If he ever had reason to pass by here, he'd not notice anything amiss.

If Regulus noticed that the hold she had on his waist was a little tighter as they drove out of the town, he didn't say anything.

xxx

Jasmine only managed to relax when she and Regulus apparated to another deserted forest and destroyed the ring horcrux. Like before, Jasmine set up the fiendfyre containment wards and Regulus cast the cursed flames.

"Well, that's two down," Regulus said cheerily. "We've just got four to go. Up for a little celebration? I did promise to bring you out to dinner, didn't I?"

Jasmine looped her arm through his and assented to his suggestion. She smiled up at him as she let Regulus apparated them away. They appeared in a tiny alley and Regulus unshrunk Sirius' motorbike. He drove them through muggle London looking for a suitably posh restaurant that was up to his standards.

When Regulus realised a few weeks ago that the only place they could safely meet was muggle London, he had proclaimed they would dress and dine along with the best of them. They had both sent their house elves to Gringotts to convert a few thousand galleons into muggle currency so as to avoid any uncomfortable questions and speculations.

Armed with a few thousand pounds, Jasmine promptly dragged Regulus to Mayfair to get fitted for muggle clothes. She ignored his grumblings and got him to try on everything from casual jeans to Armani suits. By the time she was done five hours later, the two of them had acquired a full muggle wardrobe.

Regulus did not like wearing muggle clothes all that much but after their shopping jaunt, he could discern where the people with taste usually went to for food. He parked outside a cozy little place and the two of them took seats at the wooden tables and chairs under a light blue awning. The few lit candles artfully displayed in the middle of the table made them both feel more at ease because of the familiarity to the wizarding world.

For a few hours, they both forgot all about the war and were just two young people out for a night on the town. Regulus ordered the best wine the restaurant had to offer and declared it "not bad for muggle alcohol". When the night was over, Regulus drove Jasmine home on the bike.

"I should really get one of these for myself," Regulus mused, tapping his brother's bike as the two of them came to a stop outside of Jasmine's townhouse. "It's dead useful and I don't think Sirius would be willing to give me his bike just because I asked."

"You should," Jasmine agreed. "Sirius will probably be willing to help you work out the charms for flying. If you like, I could ward the bike for you," she offered shyly.

Regulus just smiled back at her. "That would be brilliant."

Without much thought, Jasmine leaned in for a hug. "Thanks for tonight. We'll discuss the remaining soul containers tomorrow, all right?

She kissed him on the cheek before letting herself into the house. He watched her to make sure she made it in and waved good bye when she turned around to look at him. Jasmine had a wonderful night and as her head hit the pillow, she drifted off with a smile on her face.

Xxx

The next Morning, as Jasmine made her way down for breakfast, she was in an extraordinarily good mood. Lily and James were at the dining table eating breakfast and talking to each other in soft tones.

"hey Jasmine," Lily was the first to greet her. "Come have some breakfast. Jasmine returned Lily's greeting and sat down opposite her cousin and reached for some pancakes and maple syrup.

"So where have you been recently?" Lily asked curiously.

"Yeah," James agreed. "We haven't seen much of you around."

"Oh, just here and there," Jasmine said casually as she cut her pancake into smaller pieces. "I've met a guy. We're friends now, but perhaps soon we'll be more…Anyways, that's why the family doesn't see so much of me."

James choked on his pancake and Lily had to hit him a few times on the back. When he had finally composed himself, he turned back to Jasmine. "What? You've been seeing a guy? Who is he? Why haven't you told us about him? I'll kill him if he hurts my baby cousin."

Before Jasmine could respond, Lily smacked him over the head and groaned. "Don't listen to him, Jasmine. Now, tell me, is this guy cute?" Lily asked with an excited squeal.

James made to speak up again but at Lily's quelling glare, he shut his mouth. 'Must be true, what they say about red heads and their tempers,' Jasmine thought amusedly.

"Yes, he is," Jasmine responded with a huge grin directed at Lily.

James groaned again. "I don't want to hear this…" He childishly covered his ears with his hands. "You're my baby cousin!" he wailed theatrically.

Lily and Jasmine just ignored him. "So, more details please," Lily beseeched with her bright green eyes.

Jasmine promptly launched into a recounting of last night's dinner. Lily sighed at all of the appropriate places and James sulked unhappily besides his wife.

"When you guys get together for real, will you let us meet him?" Lily asked eagerly. Jasmine hesitated for a moment before answering.

"Maybe when the war is over, I'll bring him over to meet you," was the best she could come up with. She didn't want to outright lie to her cousins. They were under the impression that her friend was a muggle and Jasmine was fine letting them think that, but she would not look into their eyes and tell them a falsehood.

"All right," Lily agreed happily. "If you need any advice, come to me, ok?" They all finished up breakfast and since it was a Wednesday, Her cousins went to work while Jasmine went to her study to try and work out a few other warding schemes before she had to meet Regulus for their meeting later tonight.

xxx

A/N: Welcome to all my new readers! Thanks for all the support. I'm pretty happy that I have over 200 followers now. It's a nice feeling. I hope you enjoy this new chapter.


	8. Chapter 7- The attack

Disclaimer: J. owns all characters and plots from Harry Potter

Chapter 7-The attack

"What about this?" Jasmine held up a midnight blue Puddlemere United Jersey for Lily's inspection.

Lily gave the garment a quick, dismissive glance before she turned away. "James already has four different Puddlemere Jerseys. Two midnight blue, one red and one green."

Jasmine let out a long-suffering sigh. The two Potter women were in Diagon Alley doing their last minute Christmas shopping and they were both having difficulties in finding the right present for their friends and family. She threw up her hands in exasperation. "We've been all over the alley! I don't think I can take any more of this."

Lily rolled her eyes at Jasmine and gravitated over to another stack of quidditch robes in the corner of the shop. "Honestly, you're nearly as bad as your cousin. The both of you are too dramatic by far."

Jasmine was about to retort with a haughty comment when she felt her communication mirror vibrate in her pocket. She moved behind a towering shelf so that Lily could not see what she was doing and pulled out the mirror.

Regulus' panicked face stared back at her through the glass. He spoke before she could ask him what was wrong. "Jasmine, you have to get out of Diagon Alley now! The Death Eaters are about to attack!"

She could only stare back at him with horror written all over her face. Her heart rate had increased and she seemed to have frozen. Regulus had to shout at her once more to snap her out of her shocked state.

"All right, I will get Lily and we-"

Jasmine was cut off by a loud explosion and screams in the distance. Regulus made to speak again but she spoke over him. "We need to help everyone. If Voldemort is here, I'll try to get to the snake. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I have Lily to watch my back."

She cut the connection and hurried over to Lily who had her wand out, ready for a fight. They looked at each other and in that instant, they both understood each other perfectly. They stayed close as they left the shelter of the shop and ventured onto the streets.

It was a scene straight out of a horror film. A number of stores were set aflame and everywhere they looked, people were screaming for their loved ones and crying desperately for help. Due to all the fighting and explosions, chunks of the surrounding buildings littered the alley floor.

A particularly loud scream caught Jasmine's attention and she turned her head to see a little girl convulsing on the floor. Two death eaters were standing over her, arguing about who would get to finish her off.

Jasmine tugged on Lily's sleeve. When she had gained her cousin's attention, she jerked her head in the direction of the two death eaters. Lily understood immediately and the two Potter women impulsively rushed in to confront the two death eaters before they could kill their victim.

Lily engaged the big hulking man on the right while Jasmine took on his female companion. Her opponent seemed to delight in the challenge of fighting her. As she cast, she would cackle madly and taunt Jasmine.

"Ah, the little baby Potter! I've heard of you!"

Her opponent was very skilled in the dark arts and in spell casting. Jasmine could barely identify half of the dark curses coming her way. She did not have the breath to reply. She was too busy dodging all of the unknown curses.

Jasmine silence only seemed to spur the mad woman on. She brazenly took off her mask so that Jasmine could identify her. There was no mistaking Bellatrix Lestrange. The blood in her veins turned to ice. Her counterpart did not fear Bellatrix but Jasmine most certainly did. Regulus had told her stories of how vicious his cousin could be and Jasmine had read in the Prophet about all the atrocities this woman had committed in the name of her lord.

Jasmine began to cast more furiously. Her only chance of surviving was if she could incapacitate Bellatrix before the other woman became frustrated and started throwing around killing curses. Her attempts only seemed to make Bellatrix laugh harder. She deflected Jasmine's spells into the buildings around her and stepped nimbly to the side when she was not able to shield herself.

Suddenly, a malicious gleam appeared in Bellatrix's eyes and she spoke in a mock concern tone. "Dear Jasmine, how have you been since dear daddy and mummy were murdered? It's so sad that good witches and wizards have to die because they dirty themselves by associating with mudbloods."

Jasmine felt like tearing up but the battlefield was not the place for crying. She sent a non-verbal slicing hex which nicked Bellatrix's arm. Jasmine's silent fury only seemed to encourage the other woman.

"I was there, you know, when they took down your parents. Your daddy got me with a bone breaker. I repaid him in kind with a Crucio. Oh how sweet his screams were," she purred sadistically.

With those words, Jasmine saw red and all she could think of was hurting the woman who had helped murdered her parents. She let out a feral scream and threw blasting curses and bone breakers recklessly, hoping fervently that one of her spells would hit her target.

Unfortunately, Bellatrix was just a more skilled duellist than Jasmine. With a downward swish of her wand, she brought a part of the apothecary down on Jasmine. The motion was so swift that Jasmine could not move quickly enough to get out from under the falling rubble.

The wall pinned her from the waist down and Jasmine cried a few hopeless tears. She could not feel her legs. They were no doubt pulverised by the wall. In a last ditch attempt, she held her wand in front of her and when Bellatrix tried to disarm her, she held on as long as she could to it.

She was just too weak from all the pain and blood loss to put up a decent fight. Bellatrix plucked her wand out of the air and smiled down at her cruelly. "You've finally learned your place, baby Potter. Now you know that you are my inferior and should lie prostrate before me!"

Ironically, instead of disheartening her, Bellatrix's taunting only made her struggle more. Jasmine spat at the mad woman's feet. "I am not your inferior. It is in fact you who are inferior to me because normal human beings do not need to torture others to feel good about themselves!"

Unsurprisingly, Jasmine's words infuriated Bellatrix. She ground her dragon hide boots on Jasmine's out stretched hand and slapped her hard. "I think you need another lesson." Jasmine was helpless in the face of the Cruciatus curse. She was trapped and she could not move out of the way.

Her last thought before the bone aching pain hit her was, "At least if I have her distracted, she can't move on to someone else." It felt like her nerves were on fire and she could not comprehend anything around her. She tried to hold back her screams the way she knew her counterpart had done so many times but she was not strong enough. Jasmine began trashing on the floor. It seemed to her that she could hear mad laughter in the distance.

The pain stopped abruptly and Jasmine let out a sob of relief. Through watering eyes, she looked up and saw that Bellatrix was distracted by Lily. Apparently, Lily had fared better than she and had managed to defeat her opponent.

Even with lacerations all over her body and a dislocated shoulder that was dangling morbidly, Lily managed to match Bellatrix spell for spell. The skills the two fighters were demonstrating were phenomenal. In that moment, Jasmine had no problem believing that Lily and James were able to fight Voldemort and escape him three times.

As if he knew that she was thinking of him, James came running down the street to join his wife against Bellatrix. Sirius was just a few steps behind him. Bellatrix realised that there was no way that she could take on all three of them and so left the scene with a portkey before James could get out his first spell.

Sirius cursed loudly when he realised his cousin had escaped. James and Lily rushed over to kneel by Jasmine. James levitated the rubble out of the way to free her and the couple both hissed loudly in sympathy when they saw Jasmine's broken and battered body.

"We've got to get you to St. Mungo's now," James told her urgently. He conjured a stretcher and Lily tried levitating Jasmine onto it. The moment the levitation spell moved her, Jasmine let out a pained cry. Lily winced in pity but nevertheless did not let up on the charm until Jasmine was levitated onto the stretcher.

The two of them signalled to Sirius and disapparated from the alley. The moment they reached the hospital, Jasmine was rushed into an operating room by a few harried mediwitches. She cried out every time the stretcher tilted up and down or left and right. She could not fight off the blackness any longer and finally fell into oblivion.

Xxx

Every inch of her body ached. Her legs were tingling quite unbearably and Jasmine wanted to scratch furiously at them until the feeling went away. She opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was lying on one of the many beds in a crowded St. Mungo's room.

And yet, quite curiously, Jasmine could not hear the bustling sounds of the other healers and patients in the room. 'There must be a silencing charm around my bed to keep out the noise,' Jasmine deduced.

She turned her head to the right and spotted Lily sitting in a chair by her bedside. She made a tiny noise in her throat and Lily looked up from the newspaper she was reading and hurried over to her.

"How are you feeling?" Lily asked anxiously as she poured Jasmine a cup of water from the jug on her bedside table. Without prompting, Lily helped Jasmine to sit up and sip from the glass.

Jasmine squirmed uncomfortably on the bed. She reached down to try scratching her legs hidden by the covers. "My whole body aches. It feels like my legs are on fire. "

Lily slapped her hands away. "Don't do that," she chided sternly. "The wall that fell on you shattered the bones in your legs. The healers felt that they were too badly damaged for them to heal so they vanished your bones completely and gave you Skelegrow potion to regrow all of the bones in your lower body. They told us that all your bones will probably grow back before tomorrow."

Jasmine sent Lily a horrified look. "Was it that bad?" At Lily's hesitant nod, Jasmine leaned back into her pillows with a sigh.

"Will there be any lasting damage?" Jasmine needed to know.

"You'll probably have a bit of scarring on your lower back but that can easily be covered up. You should be fine to go by tomorrow morning. Your healer said that you shouldn't do anything strenuous for another two weeks, though." Lily sent her a firm look and Jasmine decided to just nod along.

Jasmine looked around and realised something really important was missing. "Where's my wand?" She asked in panic.

Lily looked sadly at her and even before she could speak Jasmine knew what she was going to say. Lily scooted her chair closer to her bed and clasped one of her hands in both of hers.

"I'm really sorry, Jasmine," Lily said miserably. "We think Bellatrix took it with her when she Portkeyed away. We found no sign of it when we went back to search."

A few tears of despair escaped. She had lost her wand, the most important weapon in a witch's arsenal. It felt as though she had lost a part of herself. Her Unicorn hair wand had served her well through thick and thin. She had grown up wielding it and its lost was akin to that of the death of a treasured childhood friend. How on earth was she supposed to perform magic without her wand?

Lily squeezed her hand in encouragement. "I know it won't be the same, but we'll get you a new wand, I promise. Ollivander's shop wasn't too badly damaged. He should be open tomorrow." Lily handed her a handkerchief to wipe her tears away.

Jasmine composed herself and tried to change the subject. "So where's James?"

Lily brightened up. Oh! James, Sirius and Remus are in the waiting room. Someone sent you a lovely bouquet of singing daffodils," at this, Lily shot Jasmine a meaningful glance, "and the boys are teaching them to sing a few Christmas songs."

Jasmine perked up at that. "Really? Are they having any luck? If I recall from Herbology classes, singing daffodils can be a little arrogant. If they don't like you, they simply won't learn to sing any new songs that you want to teach them."

Lily smiled fondly. "I'd say they are having too much success. The healers chased the lot of them out of here for singing too loud. They are a bad influence on your flowers. When the daffodils first arrived, they sang some lovely songs by the Beatles. Before they left, the flowers were belting out 'God bless ye Merry Hippogriffs' along with the boys."

Lily stood up. "That reminds me, I'd better go tell them that you're awake. Just sit tight. I'll bring them in. "

In a matter of minutes, Lily reappeared with the three Marauders. Sirius carried the bouquet of singing daffodils in his hands and James stroked the flowers' petals affectionately. Jasmine was highly amused by the way the flowers seemed to be purring under her cousin's administrations.

"Baby cousin!" James swooped in for a hug. He ruffled her already messy hair. "How are you feeling?"

"My legs are on fire because of the Skelegrow but I'll be all right by tomorrow. Don't worry."

Before James could reply, the flowers seem to straighten up in Sirius' arms and a tiny Clearing of the throat could be heard.

Everyone turned to the flowers in amusement. With everyone's attention on them, the flowers began crooning out 'You are my everything' by Celestina Warbeck. Jasmine had to admit, the Daffodils had a lovely voice. When the song was over, the lead flower held out one of his leaves and Jasmine untied the card from it.

Dear Jasmine,

You have me really worried. I hope the flowers manage to cheer you up. Take care of yourself and I hope to see you soon.

-Your dashingly handsome partner in crime

"Who are the flowers from? Are they from that guy you're seeing?" James asked irritably upon seeing Jasmine's soft smile.

Jasmine stuffed the card into one of her pockets and turned back to her cousin. "None of your business," she told him with a smug smirk which she was sure would get a rise out of him.

James made to argue back but Lily sent him a quelling look. "James! Now is not the time for this. Can't you see your cousin is recovering from what happened?"

Sirius and Remus sniggered from behind James and Jasmine winked at them as Lily began her tirade against her husband.

"Check this out, Jasmine," Sirius said excitedly, cutting Lily off and saving his best mate. Sirius conjured a baton to wave around like a conductor. Remus counted out the beats and the flowers burst into song with the boys.

This time, instead of singing in soft, soothing angelic voices, the flowers enthusiastically bellowed out the lyrics of a rock song with the boys and Jasmine began to laugh. Lily looked dismayed at all the attention the group was garnering but Jasmine knew she secretly enjoyed her husband's antics.

When visiting hours were finally over, Lily and James reluctantly left Jasmine and returned to Potter manor. Sirius wanted to borrow her flowers but Jasmine put her foot down. They were her flowers and he could buy his own. Even with the pleading puppy dog look on his face, Jasmine did not give in.

She stroked the flowers happily with one hand and reached for her communication mirror on her bedside table with the other. She wanted to get in contact with Regulus earlier but she couldn't get her family to leave her alone long enough to make a private call.

Regulus' relieved face appeared in the mirror and he spoke before she could. "Jasmine! How are you feeling? Did you get my flowers?"

She smiled back at him reassuringly. "I'm fine. I shattered the bones in my legs but the healers have guaranteed Lily that Skelegrow will put it all to right by tomorrow. And yes, I received your flowers. Thank you so much for them. They were lovely."

Regulus blushed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I'm glad you're fine. And it's great you like the flowers. I wasn't sure if you would appreciate the singing variety but I thought they were amusing and would cheer you up."

Jasmine laughed heartily. "They did do that." She proceeded to tell him all about how his brother taught her flowers a couple of rock songs and he just let out an exasperated sigh.

"Sirius will be Sirius." He looked at her intently. "Are you sure you're all right, Jasmine?"

"I'm fine, I promise," she told him earnestly. "I'll be back on my feet soon enough and I'll be rearing to get back to work. Have you started looking for that motorbike that you wanted?"

Regulus happily let her change the subject and started to tell her all about the different motorbikes he had looked at. "I'm thinking that a flying car might be a better idea…" he trailed off.

After a few more minutes, Regulus finally said, "All right, I better let you get some rest. Will you call me tomorrow so I know you're better?"

Jasmine assented and Regulus waved at her from the other side of the mirror before cutting the connection.

She slipped the mirror under her pillow and fell asleep to wonderful dreams of Flying across London in a bright red Ferrari with Regulus.

XXX

A/N: Welcome to my new readers! Thank you for all the favourites, follows and reviews. I'm sorry that I've been a little preoccupied lately. I had to go for a couple of interviews for a few scholarships I've applied for. Hopefully, I did well enough that I'll get it. Anyway, happy reading!


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